Hannity & Colmes

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Hannity & Colmes is an American political debate television program on the Fox News Channel featuring conservative host Sean Hannity and self-proclaimed moderate Alan Colmes. For several years, its ratings have consistently made it one of the top three cable news programs.

Usually, guests are invited on to debate the two hosts on current news stories. For some issues, Hannity and Colmes invite a conservative guest and a liberal guest who debate the issue in question. Also, there are occasional one-on-one sit-down interviews. Normally, in these interviews, Hannity interviews conservative guests and Colmes interviews liberal guests.

Fox News points to this show as an example of balance when critics claim that the network leans to the political right. The program's supporters point out that both hosts receive equal amounts of time, and that they introduce and debate items in an equal manner. The producer makes signals to each host to reduce crosstalk and allow the first host to have some time to ask questions of the guest without being immediately challenged by the other host. However, critics claim that the show seeks out topics that paint the left in a negative light. They claim that Hannity often expresses his points more forcefully than Colmes, Hannity is more telegenic than Colmes, Colmes is often seen as a "nerd" in expressing his views, Hannity is a more popular media personality than Colmes, and that both are often misleading in their statements.

Some of Colmes' liberal critics have in recent months praised him, such as commentators at Media Matters for America. He has recently begun citing their reports in his confrontation with inaccurate information being disseminated from some of his conservative guests on the program.

Hannity (left) and Colmes

The show is also well-known for its conservative-themed campaigns, which have included ongoing specials concerning illegal immigration, Terri Schiavo's final weeks, left-wing professors in academia, and abuses in eminent domain. The show's latest campaign has been to track the possible presidential run of Republican Newt Gingrich, giving him exclusive interview time to develop his platform. A study done by Media Matters conducted throughout the first two months of 2006 found that the number of conservatives and Republicans brought on as guests outnumbered the number of liberals and Democrats by landslide margins of 72%–28% in January, and 67%–33% in February. Of the solo interviews that are conducted on the show, 80% of the interviews are conducted with conservatives and Republicans.[link] However, it should also be noted that many results in the study excluded those considered by the group as "neutral".

Another fact that is generally not revealed to the audience by the show is that Sean Hannity is the executive producer of Hannity & Colmes, giving him authority over Colmes to decide what interviews shall take place and what guests shall be brought on.#redirect

An Inconvenient Truth

On May 17, 2006 the Fox News website featured a link to a video from Hannity and Colmes about former Vice President Al Gore's new movie, An Inconvenient Truth. The video link stated, "everything you need to know before you see Gore's new film". However, the video was an attack on Gore's movie, with Patrick Michaels of the libertarian Cato Institute arguing that Gore's stance on global warming was wrong while Hannity concluded that Gore was "fear-mongering" and had gone over the top all while the caption "Inconvenient Facts" appeared at the bottom of the screen. To some, segments like this are evidence of the show's tilt to the right. [link]

Trivia

The show is subtly parodied in an episode of The Drew Carey Show ("Sleeping with the Enemy"), in which Hannity appears as a strong figure, and Colmes appears as a weak, buck-toothed character. Fox News Channel is also silently referenced in the episode, with the mentioning of the slogan "Fair and Balanced", and it being used as a discussion tool. [link]

External links

[Official Hannity & Colmes website]

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